What is the emblem of wales
What is the emblem of wales
Three symbols of Wales
National symbols are better known in some countries than others. In Wales, ours are often on display and are emblems to be worn with pride. These are the 3 main symbols of Wales:
1. The Red Dragon
The earliest mention of the Red Dragon is in ‘The Mabinogion’: when a red dragon fought an invading white dragon, his cries were said to cause women to miscarry and plants to die! The symbol was used by the Romans at the time of Emperor Trajan. The Tudors adopted the Red Dragon as their symbol and the Welsh born King Henry VII took to the battle of Bosworth Field under the Red Dragon standard. The Red Dragon is the symbol of Wales which appears on the national flag.
2. The Daffodil
This is another popular emblem of Wales, especially on March 1st, St David’s Day, and the Welsh name is Cenhinen Pedr or Peter’s Leek. Its association with Wales started in the 19 th century, but became most famously associated with Wales in the early 20 th century when the Welsh Prime Minister Minster David Lloyd George wore one on St David’s Day and at ceremonies to mark the investiture of the then Prince of Wales.
The leek has been associated with Wales for many years. It was mentioned in the sixth century by the poet Taliesin and in the thirteen century Red Book of Hergest which contains the tales of The Mabinogion. According to legend, St David advised the Britons to wear leeks on their helmets when they fought the Saxons so that they could distinguish friend from foe. This story has versions involving different battles over history and it is also said that the green and white colours of the Tudors originally come from the leek. The leek is worn on St David’s Day and in some Welsh regiments it is traditional that soldiers eat a raw leek on this day. I prefer mine cooked! This year the Queen will present leeks to members of the 3 rd Battalion The Royal Welsh as part of the St David’s Day celebrations.
In Wales, we celebrate St David’s Day proudly and you can see many examples of these Welsh emblems on display then. If you would like to visit West Wales to take part in the celebrations one year you might like to browse our collection of holiday cottages and start planning your visit. Many cottages are available for weekend breaks at this time of year as well as for full week stays, so why not come and join us? As well as the leeks, we can offer tasty Welsh cakes too!
Why Is the Leek a National Symbol in Wales?
It forms the basis of their national dish, it is displayed proudly at the rugby, it’s even stamped on the Welsh pound coin, but what originally brought the leek and the Welsh together?
There are several stories which link Wales with the leek. One of the most famous is that on the eve of battle with the Saxons, Wales’s patron St, David advised the army to wear a leek to distinguish themselves from the enemy. This theme carried through to the Hundred Years War of the 13th and 14th centuries when Welsh archers were a key weapon in battle. With longbows as tall as a man, they would fire a storm of arrows to bring down the enemy…and would pop a leek in their caps to identify themselves. They also wore a green and white ‘uniform’ whilst in battle. When the Tudors, a Welsh family, originally took the throne of England, members of the Household Guard wore leeks on St David’s Day and were given a bonus in their pay. By the Elizabethan period William Shakespeare wrote in his play, Henry V that the wearing of leeks was an ancient tradition for the Welsh – the character Fluellen tells the King (who was born at Monmouth, Wales) that he is wearing a leek, “for I am Welsh, you know, good countryman.”
There are also tales of leeks being given as rations to Welsh soldiers, and as they are the main ingredient of the Welsh soup cawl, this is quite believable. The leek, of course, has been about for thousands of years and over that time has been used for medicinal purposes as well as food, and even today leeks are worn by every member of a Welsh regiment on St David’s Day – however, the other great symbol of Wales, the daffodil, is certainly a less pungent addition to an outfit! Interestingly, the Welsh name for the daffodil is Cenhinen Bedr or Peter’s Leek.
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What is the emblem of wales
The Leek
The connection between Wales and the leek is obscure. Most authors trying to trace the link come up with one or other of the legends that show it was used by the Welsh as a cap badge in battle to show friend from foe
One version is that St David advised the Britons on the eve of a battle with the Saxons, to wear leeks in their caps so that they could easily distinguish friend from foe. This apparently helped to secure a great victory.
Another version has the same thing happening at the Battle of Agincourt, when Welsh archers fought with Henry V against the French. The leeks in their caps distinguished them from their enemies
In any event the leek is firmly associated with the Welsh today. Leeks are worn on St David’s Day. It is still a surviving tradition that soldiers in the Welsh regiments eat a raw leek on St David’s Day.
The Daffodil
If the link between the leek and the Welsh is obscure, how about the Daffodil. Possibly the reason why the daffodil is used as an emblem is that the word for daffodil and for leek are the same in Welsh (Cenhinen = Leek, Cenhinen Pedr = Daffodil). This confusion means that both have been adopted as national emblems.
It is said by some that the daffodil is encouraged more by the English government, as it does not have the nationalistic overtones that the leek has, with its association with the defeat of Saxons.
Flag of Wales
 | |
| Name | Y Ddraig Goch (The Red Dragon) |
|---|---|
| Use | Civil and state flag  |
| Proportion | 3:5 |
| Adopted | 1959 |
| Design | Per fess Argent and Vert, a dragon passant Gules |
The Flag of Wales (Welsh: Baner Cymru or Y Ddraig Goch, meaning «The Red Dragon») consists of a red dragon passant on a green and white field. As with many heraldic charges, the exact representation of the dragon is not standardised and many renderings exist.
The flag incorporates the Red Dragon of Cadwaladr, King of Gwynedd, along with the Tudor colours of green and white. It was used by Henry VII at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 after which it was carried in state to St Paul’s Cathedral. The red dragon was then included in the Tudor royal arms to signify their Welsh descent. It was officially recognised as the Welsh national flag in 1959.
Wales and Bhutan are the only countries to have a dragon as a major design element on their flag, though the Chinese flag also featured a dragon during the Qing Dynasty, and a dragon appears on the badge of the George Cross on the flag of Malta.
Contents
Red Dragon of Wales
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The flag was granted official status in 1959, but the red dragon itself has been associated with Wales for centuries, though the origin of the adoption of the dragon symbol is now lost in history and myth. A possible theory is that the Romans brought the emblem to what is now Wales during their occupation of Britain in the form of the Draco standards born by the Roman cavalry, itself inspired by the symbols of the Dacians or Parthians. [ 1 ] The green and white stripes of the flag were additions by the House of Tudor, the Welsh dynasty that held the English throne from 1485 to 1603. Green and white are also the colours of the leek, another national emblem of Wales.
The oldest known use of the dragon to represent Wales is from the Historia Brittonum, [ 2 ] written around 830; the text describes a struggle between two serpents deep underground, which prevents King Vortigern from building a stronghold. This story was later adapted into a prophecy made by the wizard Myrddin (or Merlin) of a long fight between a red dragon and a white dragon. According to the prophecy, the white dragon, representing the Saxons, would at first dominate but eventually the red dragon, symbolising the Celts, would be victorious and recapture Lloegr. According to the legend, this victory would be brought about by Y Mab Darogan. This is believed to represent the conflict in the 5th and 6th centuries between the British Celts and the invading Saxons. A version of the tale also appears as part of the poem ‘Cyfranc Lludd a Llefelys’ in the Mabinogion. [ 2 ] One twelfth century account of this is Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae, where he states Merlin’s prophecies.
The red dragon is popularly believed to have been the battle standard of Arthur [ 2 ] and other ancient Celtic/Romano-British leaders. It is particularly associated in Welsh poetry with Cadwaladr king of Gwynedd from c.655 to 682.
Despite the close link throughout early Welsh history, the dragon was not used exclusively as a symbol for Wales during this period, and it was used throughout Britain as a symbol of authority. In 1138 it was adopted by the Scottish as a royal standard, and Richard I took a dragon standard to the Third Crusade in 1191. Henry III fought under the dragon at the Battle of Lewes and it was used later by Edward III at the Battle of Crécy. The Battle of Crécy has a notable connection to Wales, due to Edward’s use of Welsh longbowmen from Llantrisant, who wore the colours of green and white, the Tudor colours, which would later be used as the background colours of the flag of Wales. [ 3 ]
In 1400 Owain Glyndwr raised the dragon standard during his revolts against the occupation of Wales by the English crown. Fifteen years later the English crown, under the rule of Henry V, used the red dragon standard itself during the Battle of Agincourt. The English forces during the battle utilised Welsh longbowmen, along with their own archers. In 1485, the most significant link between the symbol of the Red Dragon and Wales occurred when Henry Tudor flew the red dragon of Cadwallader during his invasion of England. [ 3 ] Henry was of Welsh descent and after leaving France with an army of 2000, landed at Milford Haven on 7 August. He made capital of his Welsh ancestry in gathering support and gaining safe passage through Wales. Henry met and fought Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field, and in victory took the English throne. After the battle, Henry carried the Red Dragon standard in state to St. Paul’s Cathedral, and later the Tudor livery of green and white was added to the flag. [ 4 ]
Modern use
In 1807 the red dragon on a green mount was adopted as the Royal Badge of Wales, [ 2 ] and on 11 March 1953 [ 5 ] the motto Y Ddraig goch ddyry cychwyn (‘The red dragon gives impetus’) was added, a line from the poem by Deio ab Ieuan Du which metaphorically refers to a bull copulating. [ 2 ] The badge was the basis of a flag of Wales [ 6 ] in which it was placed on a horizontal white and green bicolour. In 1959 government use of this flag was dropped in favour of the current flag [ 7 ] [ 8 ] at the urging of the Gorsedd of Bards. [ 9 ] Today the flag can be seen flying from the Welsh Assembly building in Cardiff, and from the Wales Office in Whitehall, London each day.
Weird & Wonderful Facts About Cardiff & Wales
Introduction
The Welsh capital has been emerging in recent years as one of the UK’s most popular destinations for students looking for a superb academic experience and also a location that provides an energetic and exciting social scene.
Our Eclipse and Neighbourhood student accommodation in Cardiff have been filling up in record times over the last few semesters for just these reasons, but as we discover in the latest feature here at Collegiate, there are all sorts of weird and wonderful reasons to consider Cardiff for your studies.
Intriguing Facts About Wales
As the capital, any reasons to study in Wales apply to Cardiff with only Swansea and Aberystwyth as the other prominent university towns and cities in the country. We’ve picked out some of our favourites…
Why Is The Daffodil A Symbol of Wales?
Alongside the Welsh dragon, the daffodil is perhaps the icon most synonymous with the nation of Wales, and therefore it’s capital. Not a weird and wonderful fact of course as we all know this, but no guide to Cardiff would be complete without some mention of this famous flower and just why it has become the emblem of a proud nation.
The daffodil is actually another symbol of the Welsh patron, St David (Dewi Sant). It is an icon of rebirth and faithfulness due to the fact that the flower blooms every single year, even following harsh weather conditions. This is something the Welsh believe to be representative of the spirit of their nation.
What Is The Welsh Rugby Emblem?
As you will discover pretty quickly during your time in Cardiff, or indeed any part of Wales, Rugby Union is the bedrock of Welsh culture – and given that the city’s Principality is just a 25-minute walk from our Cardiff Met University accommodation, it would be rude not to take in a match day or two! With this brings yet another emblem and icon that cannot be mistaken, that of the Prince of Wales’ feathers. This can be found on the famous red jerseys worn by the national team as they do battle in competitions such as the Six Nations or the Rugby World Cup.
The badge is three white feathers protruding through a golden coronet and the following motto, “Ich Dien”. This is inscribed on a blue ribbon entwined around the shaft of the feathers.
You may well have also noticed this on a batch of 2 pence coins that were minted around ten years ago and still in circulation. As well as being the Welsh rugby emblem, this is used wherever the Prince of Wales is involved, such as charity work.
Dragons, leeks, rugby and daffodils; as you can see Wales and its capital is a culture rich and proud region and one that could be perfect for you as you decide where to head to for your degree. If this article has sparked some interest, then get in touch with the Collegiate team as we still have some availability for the forthcoming academic year.